Montmanoir
Our history
History of the Manoir
Charles V, King of France (photo Miniwark, 2006)
In the Middle Ages, shortly after the year 1000, two hamlets sprang up in the heart of the new farmland taken from the forest to feed the growing population of Paris.
One was named Moulignon, the other Métiger.
Métiger was ceded in 1099 by the local lord, Raoul Deliès, Count of Pontoise, to the monks of the abbey of Saint-Martin des Champs in Paris, but disappeared during the Hundred Years’ War.
In contrast, Moulignon became a prosperous little village of land clearers and grain farmers.
Over the years, through the generations, its name evolved to become Montlignon.
The fiefdom of Montlignon changed hands several times in medieval times.
In the early 12thcentury, Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis purchased the seigneury of Montlignon from its Jewish owner, Ursellus, who held it until 1151.
At the very end of the 13th century, it became the property of the illustrious House of Montmorency, whose founder was a comrade-in-arms of King Clovis and who gave several connétables – i.e. supreme chiefs of the armies – to the Crown of France.
In 1379, Charles V the Wise, the great king of France, who founded the very first Royal Library and ended the first part of the Hundred Years’ War by recovering almost all the lands conquered by the English from his predecessors, bought Montlignon as a gift to the canons of the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes.
From the end of the 14th century onwards, the Château de Montlignon, which overlooked the village, was successively inhabited by the great families of the Kingdom of France, some noble, some commoners, who in return paid generous rents to the canons.
In the middle of the 16th century, this was the case for Louis Ladvocat, seigneur de Sanneterre, royal councillor and master of the Chambre des Comptes; then, on his death in 1672, for his son-in-law René Aubry, royal councillor and general receiver of finances for the Généralité de Rouen.
During the reign of Louis XV, Château de Montlignon was occupied by Sieur d’Armanville.
A member of the Comédie-Française troupe from the 1770s, actor and tragedian Larive, a friend of Voltaire’s, frequently played the lead role in the philosopher’s plays.
He then became the precursor of drama schools, founding a declamation course in 1804.
Four years later, he retired to Montlignon, where he became mayor and remained until his death in 1827.
In 1791, the estate’s owner, Seigneur Duplessis, fled the Revolution, while his property was confiscated and sold at auction.
In 1793, the naturalist Louis-Augustin Bosc, discoverer of a variety of stone he humorously named « chabasie » – which means « ill-defined stone » in Greek – and ardent supporter of the Revolution, opposed the Terror: after being imprisoned, he took refuge in Montlignon to escape the guillotine, and returned there several times thereafter whenever his life was in danger.
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Charles Gounod, world-famous opera composer for his Faust, adopted Montlignon as his summer resort, where he met not only the great Victor Hugo, but also his friend, the accursed poet Alfred de Musset.
Musician Paturel, painter Desmaisons and conductor Lucien Conti also stayed here.
In 1869, the man of letters Victor Poupin, a friend of Victor Hugo and Garibaldi and a fervent defender of secularism, wrote that « Montlignon is a delightful village whose inhabitants are almost all rich nurserymen. Everyone knows that surrounded by charming shadows and nestled in its flowers like a pearl in the richest of jewel cases, Montlignon is an enchanting site ».
Cabaret artist and Resistance fighter Josephine Baker
During the Roaring Twenties, the famous cabaret artist Mistinguett, revue leader and long-time companion of singer Maurice Chevalier, settled in Montlignon, at 11 rue de Paris.
Much later, the world-famous star of the next generation, Josephine Baker, a great Resistance fighter during the Occupation and then a civil rights activist on the other side of the Atlantic alongside Martin Luther King, became a regular at the Montlignon inn.
Between the wars, one of the large houses on the Manoir estate was converted into a convalescent home and children’s summer camp.
After the war, the same house was extended several times throughout the second half of the 20th century, to accommodate children with social and educational difficulties.
In 1920, the young seminarian Lucien Bunel did his military service in Montlignon.
He became the Carmelite priest Jacques de Jésus, a Resistance fighter during WW2, who hid Jews during the Occupation, was deported to the Gusen concentration camp, and died in 1945 a few weeks after his liberation.
Louis Malle’s film « Au Revoir les Enfants » was inspired by his arrest and that of the three Jewish children he was hiding.
The Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem honors him as « Righteous Among the Nations ».
The poet Paul Eluard, founder of Surrealism and Dadaism alongside André Breton, Resistance fighter during the Occupation and pacifist activist during the Cold War, lived in Montlignon for over ten years, in a house on rue des Ecoles.
In 1948, the manor estate became a boarding school for girls run by the Dominican Sisters of the Très Saint Rosaire.
In 1958, the French government bought the property, transforming it successively into an agricultural training center, a technical training center, a teacher training center for the French Ministry of Education, and even, for a time, a general secondary school.
Postcards of the Manoir
Montmanoir’s values are elegance, calm and hospitality.
Montmanoir.
Created by Ma Holding